


All Alone Beneath the Mistletoe

by Azurite



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Community: yuugiouxmasfic, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-11-28
Updated: 2005-11-28
Packaged: 2018-09-06 16:23:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8760346
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azurite/pseuds/Azurite
Summary: It's the season of giving and sharing, but how can two people feel so alone when they're right next to one another? Snow isn't the only thing that can obscure what's right in front of you.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Shoelace-tan](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Shoelace-tan).



> **Disclaimer:** I only own the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. What, you think I'm kidding?  
>  **Notes:** This was originally written for "Shoelace-tan" over at the LiveJournal community yuugiouxmasfic, a secret santa exchange from a while back. I went under the alias "Socks." This is my first submission, for Week 1 (Theme: Mistletoe).
> 
> Inspired by a song. Does that make this a songfic? In any case, the title song was written by Jay Althouse.

Being of the tall and gangly variety of male specimens, Seto Kaiba was not accustomed to sitting cross-legged for any sort of situation. However, given that he was on the floor of the Domino Orphanage with an assortment of children crawling all over him like he was a human jungle gym rather changed things.

Ever since he'd walked into the orphanage one late December evening, he'd become their "mostest favorite person in the whole wide world"-- at least until they got distracted by the Christmas decorations and presents he'd brought for the orphans. This was something he and Mokuba did every year-- at least, every year since Gozaburo Kaiba's death. It was just their little way of giving back to the orphanage that had helped them in their time of need: when their own family abandoned them and the world seemed dark. Their time at the orphanage hadn't been miserable because of the staff or the place; it had been their fellow orphans, just as angry at the world and other people as Seto himself was once guilty of being.

The orphanage staff knew to expect him at the same time on practically the same day every year. And while the faces of all the orphans changed every year, and not every one always remembered him, the odd -maybe even _warm_?- feeling Kaiba got seeing those parentless children smile was enough to last him through the New Year.

But the smiles quickly faded from view when a strong, clear voice sounded from just outside the snow-covered orphanage entrance; the children seemed to know what they were hearing and thundered toward the door in a pack, much to the protests of the staff.

"Anthoo!" a little girl missing her front two teeth lisped happily.

The voice didn't break or halt; it continued to sing as clearly as crisply as before, though Kaiba thought he detected a 'smile' in the soprano vocals.

"...All seem to say, throw cares away, Christmas is here, bringing good cheer..." And so the singer continued as she slowly made her way through the orphanage halls, likely bogged down by the steadily increasing crowds of children. The closer she got to the main room where Seto still sat, cross-legged and surprised, the more antsy Mokuba became. At last, he bolted up and joined the kids in the hallway, hoping to peer over the mass of heads and see who the new arrival was and why she garnered so much attention.

"...Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say throw cares away..." At last, the lilting voice died out to a whisper, and the tallest figure amongst the group of children entered the room. Bright blue eyes met with deep blue ones, each pair widening in a small measure of surprise.

"Kaiba...?"

"Mazaki." His was a statement, not a question, though the truth was, Anzu's appearance had certainly changed in the past six years since he'd last encountered her in person. She was certainly taller, with a fuller, toned figure-- that of a star ballerina, no doubt. She was, after all, the prima ballerina in Japan's Tokyo Ballet Company, and at only 24 years old, the stage was quite literally set for her bright future.

There was a brief flustered blush that crossed her cheeks, but it disappeared before Kaiba could even think twice about it. Anzu set two heaping bags on the floor beside her: one was filled with strings of lights, fake boughs of holly and evergreen, wreaths, and artificial pine branches decorated with fake snow and shining glitter. The other bag contained what looked like buckets of paint and splattered-on stencils.

"Well, I guess you're here for the kids too, hm? Funny, I've been coming here every holiday for the past ten years or so; I've never seen you around..."

Kaiba only grunted in reply and rose to his feet to assist Anzu and the overly-excited children with her bags. Apparently she'd also slung a backpack over her shoulder, an an open zipper revealed wrapped presents and a box of candies, all of which only served to excite the children more, so they thickened the crowd around her. It took a somewhat forceful pull to bring Anzu even remotely close to Kaiba, who stood on the outskirts of the crowd trying to work his way in.

When at last Anzu had broken free, she spoke to the orphanage staff for a short while before returning to help distribute stencils and small paint palettes to the children.

"Okay, we're going to paint the windows tonight! Snowflakes, snowmen, Santa Claus-- go ahead and paint it! And when you're all done... I might have some presents for you!" The children let out a loud hurrah and skittered off to their dormitory-style rooms, where the lowest windows in the building allowed for decoration. Mokuba trailed along after the youngest ones, just to make sure they didn't accidentally eat their paint.

Nearly a half-hour later, Anzu found herself rather awkwardly positioned beside Kaiba in the main room, decorating some of the higher windows with winter scenes of snowscapes. She rather liked designing elegant snowflakes and goofily-dressed snowmen; one snowman in particular wore a dog-eared cap and had a bright red fingerprint for a nose, prompting an under-the-breath cough from Kaiba that sounded suspiciously like "mutt!"

Anzu abruptly began speaking as if she'd been talking to Kaiba since she'd arrived. "Actually, I'm glad you're here. Every Christmas I stop by the orphanage and help the kids decorate, but this year it looks like I can finally give them more." The pause after her words told Kaiba that she was waiting for him to ask 'What?', even though it was completely redundant to do so.

"What do you mean?" he asked at last, sweeping his brush in a lazy motion. He was content just creating swipes of 'pine' across the borders of the windows, letting the acrylic paint dry before adding red holly berries to the design.

"I finally got the prima ballerina position with the Tokyo Ballet Company," Anzu smiled, adding a swirly white line to her snowscape. Snowflakes of varying sizes and shapes floated across the glass, only the least intricate of them --the real ones outside-- ending up in a pile outside the window on the sill. "I contacted the heads of various charity organizations in the city, and we all coerced the director of the company to have a charity performance for the city's orphanages."

This time, Anzu's pause didn't seem to imply that she was expecting Kaiba to add anything. She seemed to have stopped because she was at a lost for what to say; her brush stilled at the middle part of the window that now she and him were working on. She'd only managed to paint half of a pointed leaf before clutching her brush awkwardly and staring into space.

"If... If it weren't for your donation to the company earlier this year, I don't think we would have had the money to pull it off. Tokyo Ballet's famous, no doubt, b-but..."

"I've never had a problem supporting the arts," Kaiba gruffly said, if just to get Anzu to stop thanking him in that quiet stutter of hers. That and she was blushing again, and this time, Kaiba couldn't just attribute it to the cold and forget about it.

"Well, thank you anyway," Anzu finally said as she straightened and turned to look at him. After staring at teach other for a few moments, tense and unsure of exactly what to say or do, Kaiba cleared his throat.

"I'm going to look for Mokuba." And with that, he walked away, his paintbrush forgotten on the windowsill. He didn't even realize that he'd accidentally daubed Anzu's pointy half-leaf with a blob of white paint.

"Oh well," Anzu sighed. "I guess it's all alone beneath the mistletoe for me again this year..." She finished painting the leaf and added two more white berries, completing the tiny mistletoe spray at the top of the window.

Hours later, many children were worn out from all their painting and climbing around. They'd gathered back in the main room, and most were happily sucking on the remainders of candy canes or red, green, and silver chocolate "kisses." The orphanage looked completely different from the place she'd entered earlier; now each window was covered with some Christmas scene, whether it was snowmen on a hill, reindeer hoisting a sled up into a moonlit sky, or giant holly berries with happy faces and tongues. Some of the older, more adventurous children had even drawn their favorite Duel Monsters in Christmas clothing, including a Black Magician Girl done up as 'Santa's Little Helper.'

Anzu presented the squealing kids with tickets to the upcoming charity performance, which she explained was a medley of favorite holiday songs, done in both orchestral and modern rock and pop styles. There would even be scenes from The Christmas Carol musical and The Nutcracker story, but in order to be allowed to go, all the kids had to be good little boys and girls until the day of the performance. The children enthusiastically promised to be on their best behavior, and then the staff ushered them all off to bed.

Soon, only Anzu, Kaiba, and Mokuba were left standing in the main entryway, admiring their handiwork.

"Well, I guess that's it then. At least they'll have a merry Christmas here."

"Hn," Kaiba agreed in that same grunt of his.

Silence reigned once more, as neither party seemed too inclined to be the first to say 'goodbye' and disappear for who-knows-how-long.

"You guys are welcome to come too, of course. I mean, you're the sponsors, so you probably have season tickets to all our performances, but--"

"We'll be there for sure, Anzu!" Mokuba reassured her, before Kaiba could say a word. Mokuba looked hesitantly up at his brother, wondering if he would refute the statement and claim he had some prior engagement, but his older brother kept mysteriously silent, his gaze instead directed at some unseen place in the distance.

While looking up at his older brother, Mokuba couldn't help but notice one tiny thing-- quite literally hanging above Kaiba and Anzu's heads.

"Uh, guys?" Mokuba only grinned wolfishly and pointed up at the tiny gathering of mistletoe hanging from the upper awning.

Kaiba's gaze suddenly became quite direct; he stared at Anzu with a completely expressionless face-- but he didn't move from the spot. Anzu stared right back at him, just as unmoving.

"They shouldn't have that up there," Kaiba said at last, his gaze still fixed on Anzu's crystal clear blue eyes. "It's poisonous."

"Something tells me the kids aren't going to be reaching up there and eating the leaves," Anzu whispered. "Besides, it's up there, and I don't think we can get it down..."

"So what are we going to do?"

Anzu's eyes widened a fraction at the question; she didn't know if Kaiba was being intentionally obtuse or what; surely he knew what mistletoe _meant_ , right? She half-wanted to look at Mokuba and see what HIS expression looked like; Mokuba was the only one who could read Kaiba's every eye twitch and know exactly what his enigmatic older brother was feeling.

But... the holiday season was about things like making wishes, doing what you wanted before the year was up, and being just a little crazy and impulsive, right? Well, what Anzu was about to do certainly fit all three categories, so...

Like the prima ballerina she was, Anzu rose to her toes on pointe and softly kissed Kaiba on the mouth. A moment later, she settled back down on the balls of her feet and she went dashing out into the late-night snow, her bright red scarf fluttering behind her.


End file.
